State to receive $75M in chip support as park transfer still uncertain

By Larry Rulison

Published 8:18 pm, Friday, October 2, 2015

Albany

A plan by the Cuomo administration to provide the final $100 million in funding for a state-led $4.8 billion computer chip research consortium appeared in disarray last week when the board of NYSERDA, the state's energy research unit, blocked the sale of 280 acres of state-owned land to SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany.

The sale of the parcel, known as the Saratoga Technology + Energy Park, was to be part of $25 million in funding NYSERDA is supposed to give to a SUNY Poly program research known as the Global 450 Consortium, or the G450C.

And although NYSERDA's funding plan is now uncertain, a plan by the New York Power Authority to provide the other $75 million to the G450C has been moving forward.

On Sept. 17, the board of Empire State Development, the state's economic development arm, approved a plan to have NYPA contribute $15 million a year over five years to SUNY Poly to fund the G450C, which is working on making computer chips using massive 450 millimeter silicon wafers. The money will come out of about $90 million that NYPA provides the state annually.

The G450C is one of Cuomo's signature economic development projects. President Barack Obama even visited NanoFab X, a pilot 450 millimeter chip factory, back in 2012 when the hulking, 500,000-square-foot building was still under construction.

Today's most advanced chip factories process chips on 12-inch, or 300 millimeter, wafers. But the larger wafers, about 18 inches across, have twice the surface. In theory, the scale should reduce the cost per wafer by 30 percent. That's a major reduction considering a chip factory, such as GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 in Malta, costs as much as $15 billion to build.

When he announced the G450C in 2011, Cuomo pledged $400 million to the consortium, which is primarily funded by the chip companies, including more than $2.8 billion from IBM.

The state has already provided $300 million to the G450C. The final $100 million that is still owed is earmarked for "energy efficiency and low cost energy allowances," according to Cuomo's original 2011 announcement, which is why NYPA and NYSERDA were asked to pay it.

In June 2014, Cuomo's budget director determined NYSERDA would be responsible for $25 million. The plan included having NYSERDA transfer STEP, valued at $9 million, to SUNY Poly in lieu of $10 million of the $25 million, with the remaining amount coming from energy efficiency programs.

On Sept. 21, NYSERDA board member Ken Daly suggested during a public committee meeting that an outside review of the STEP transfer might be needed considering recent "audits" of SUNY Poly — presumably referring to recent subpoenas issued to SUNY Poly as part of an investigation into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion high-tech initiative.

SUNY Poly officials subsequently blasted Daly in a scathing statement that sarcastically suggested the school "would be happy to accept" a $25 million check instead of the STEP land.

It is unclear if NYSERDA has provided anything to the G450C so far. NYSERDA officials have repeatedly failed to address questions about the funding.